Man freed from prison by state's highest court that ruled Oswego County judge made mistake

View full sizeScott Furey, 41, of Wayne County was released from state prison Thursday. He's now being held in Oswego County Jail.

The state’s highest court has ordered a new trial for a man who was sent to state prison for kidnapping and assaulting his ex-girlfriend in the city of Oswego in 2008.

The state Court of Appeals — overturning a lower court — ruled the Oswego County judge erred by not removing a juror himself who knew people involved in the case.

Scott Furey, 41, of Wayne County was released from state prison Thursday. He’s now being held in Oswego County Jail on $25,000 or $50,000 bond.

Furey was convicted in March 2009 by an Oswego County jury. Judge Walter Hafner Jr. sentenced him two months later to 5 1/2 years in state prison on the kidnapping charge and 3 1/2 years in prison on a felony burglary charge. Those sentences were to be served concurrently.

Bailey Garfinkel, told police in May 2008 that Furey, her ex-boyfriend, kicked in her the door of her Oswego apartment, forced her into his Jeep, physically assaulted her and threatened to harm her family. She was 22 years old at the time.

Garfinkel told police that Furey had duct tape, shovels and zip ties.

“Scott told me that I was gonna die and he was gonna bury me. I was scared for my life. I thought Scott was gonna kill me,” she told police in her seven-page statement.

Furey has served about 2 ½ years of his sentence. After he lost his first appeal in the state Appellate Division court in Rochester, he took his case to the state Court of Appeals in Albany. On Dec. 15, the Court of Appeals overturned the Appellate court’s decision and ordered that Furey receive a new trial in Oswego County Court.

Attorney Gary Muldoon, of Rochester, represented Furey in both appeals. He said the Court of Appeals ordered a new trial and reversed the Appellate Division’s decision because of an issue with one of the prospective jurors.

Kathleen Comerford, the wife of the then Oswego Police Capt. James Comerford, was a perspective juror in the case. Kathleen Comerford knew or had professional relationships with several of the witnesses expected to testify at Furey’s trial and should have been automatically removed from jury service, Muldoon said.

In the decision, the judges wrote that “although Mrs. Comerford offered unequivocal assurances of impartiality, those declarations were ineffective in a case like this because there was a considerable risk that she could unwittingly give undue credence to the witnesses she knew and her service would give rise to the perception that defendant did not receive a fair trial.”

Instead the defendant was forced to use a peremptory challenge to remove her, lessening the number of challenges that the defense had to use in the jury selection process, Muldoon said. Comerford not being automatically removed from the jury selection process led to the Court of Appeals’ decision to grant Furey a new trial.

The Court of Appeals decision shocked Garfinkel’s family.

“We are very disappointed and angered by this turn of events,” the family said in a statement released Thursday. “And our sincere hopes are that this man that has caused so much damage and distress in our lives will soon be back behind bars before he hurts anyone else.”